Nike makes mass senior leadership changes, announces job cuts

By

Gabriella Lacombe

Published
Jul 23, 2020

Nike has announced a series of leadership changes, as well as job cuts across the sportswear company, in order to support its new Consumer Direct Acceleration (CDA) strategy. 

Announced in June, the CDA is a digital initiative to boost the company's direct-to-consumer business, designed "to create a more premium, consistent and seamless consumer experience across Nike’s owned and strategic partner ecosystem, align around a new simpler consumer construct and also unify investments in an end-to-end technology foundation to accelerate our digital transformation," the company said. 

In order to boost the initiative, the company has made several changes to its leadership team. 

Amy Montagne, a 15-year Nike veteran, has been named vice president and general manager of men's after serving in roles including VP/GM of global categories and VP/GM of Nike women's, among others. 

Whitney Malkiel has been promoted from VP/GM of golf, tennis and SB to VP/GM of women’s. She has been with Nike for 17 years. 

McCallester Dowers, who has been with the company for 24 years, will now serve as VP/GM of kids after most recently serving as VP/GM of Nike young athletes, North America. 

All three executives will report to Michael Spillane, who will now serve as president, consumer creation. Having served in numerous roles for Nike, he first joined the company in 2007. 

“We are announcing changes today to transform Nike faster, accelerate against our biggest growth opportunities and extend our leadership position,” said John Donahoe, president and CEO, of Nike. “Now is the right time to build on Nike’s strengths and elevate a group of experienced, talented leaders who can help drive the next phase of our growth.” 

The company has also changed up its global leadership in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and in Asia Pacific and Latin America (APLA). 

Carl Grebert, who has been with the company for 23 years and most recently served as vice president/general manager, APLA, will now serve as vice president/general manager of the EMEA region. He will succeed Bert Hoyt, who will retire from Nike later this year. 

Sarah Mensah will succeed Grebert as VP/GM, APLA, having most recently served as VP/GM of Jordan brand North America. 

Ann Hebert and Angela Dong will remain the VP/GMs, North America and Greater China geographies, respectively. All geography leaders report to Heidi O’Neill, President, Consumer and Marketplace.

Craig A. Williams, president of Jordan Brand, and G. Scott Uzzell, president and CEO of Converse Inc., also joined the company's leadership team and will report to John Donahoe.

In addition to its multiple promotions, the company also said that "operational model changes" made to align with the CDA initiative "are expected to lead to a net loss of jobs across the company, resulting in pre-tax one-time employee termination costs of approximately $200 million to $250 million."

These latest announcements of cuts and a digital push come after Nike reported a $790 million (£637 million) quarterly net loss last month after its business took a major hit caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Despite the loss, the company saw its digital sales skyrocket by 75% in Q4. In June, Donahoe said Nike would aim to grow its digital business to account for 50% of its total business.